Amnesty International is attempting to bomb the world's airwaves, news sites and printing presses with yet another fake "Israeli apartheid" report. Last week, in an extraordinary move to attain media synchrony, Amnesty actually pre-positioned a press release emblazoned with a bright red instruction to editors: "Under Strict Embargo until Feb. 1, 2022."

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A press embargo is an agreement commonly utilized with editors to withhold news until a pre-determined moment, generally to maximize simultaneous impact across outlets.

In this case, the over-hyped Amnesty report is a rehash of old, discredited and falsely premised allegations of "Israel apartheid" – detached from reality. The rehash seems intended to undercut the diplomatic progress that the Jewish state has made with its Arab neighbors via the Abraham Accords and the dynamic ascendancy of its Arab citizens who make up 20% of the population.

The Abraham Accords have turned out to be far more than cold pieces of peace from a prior US administration (resembling that with Egypt). Instead, the Accords have blossomed into genuinely warm and vibrant mutual relationships that have grown in every direction with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and have cemented real bilateral recognition and progress with Morocco, Sudan and Oman.

At the same time, Arabs – with their approximate 11% to 13% voting bloc – have become the new kingmakers in Israel. Their swing vote makes the difference between success or failure for virtually all Israeli domestic initiatives in the Knesset.

The United Arab List (Ra'am) employs the power of its swing vote to rally millions of shekels in government programs and continues a life that is arguably the most affluent, free and empowered anywhere in the Middle East.

Apartheid in Israel is a lie proliferated by a United Nations dominated by Russia, which is desperate to deflect international condemnation of its Ukraine-invasion threats, and China, which is hoping that the world will not notice its sadistic genocide against the Uyghurs during its fractured Olympic moment.

Amnesty International is too vested in the old, discredited narrative of "Israeli apartheid" to give up the effort in favor of the real peace and prosperity taking root among 2 million Arab citizens of Israel. Moreover, Amnesty has lagged behind other NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch, which have raised millions of dollars on the apartheid fiction.

What's more, Amnesty hopes to retain relevance by vectoring with the new permanent "Israel apartheid" agenda item of the U.N. Human Rights Council. Including such human-rights icons as Libya and Pakistan, the UNHRC has managed to condemn the State of Israel more than all other nations in the world, many times over.

Acceptance of Amnesty's report depends upon an uninformed public unaware of the facts. For example, the report spotlights the discredited notion that innocent Arabs are being evicted from their ancient homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem.

By now it has been well-documented that Jews legally purchased and properly registered the land in the 1800s from the Ottoman authorities to worship close to revered Rabbi Simon the Just's tomb. The Jewish neighborhood housed 40 families until Jordan's illegal 1948 invasion when it stole the land and then illegally gave it away.

When Israel reclaimed the stolen land after the Six-Day War in 1967, those recent Arab tenants stayed on, paying a pittance of rent until it became more profitable to pretend that they owned the tracts – causing protracted legal action and judgments that they ignored, subsequently leading to eviction. This becomes "apartheid" in the hands of Amnesty – but in reality, it's actually a garden variety landlord-tenant case.

Likewise, Amnesty does not want anyone to remember that approximately half of Israel's population is not descended from the likes of far-off Miami and Brooklyn, but from such regional climes as Morocco and Baghdad, which expelled some 850,000 Jews, stateless and penniless, largely into Israel, in the biggest and most public ethnic cleansing in history.

Nor does anyone mention that until 1964, Jewish Zionists in their internationally recognized homeland were globally referred to as "Palestinians," and that the Arabs were referred to as "Arabs." Then, that year, the KGB and the Arab League created the Palestine Liberation Organization.

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Those two sponsors helped the Arabs commit identity theft and then expropriate the term "Palestinians" for themselves. Prior to 1964, there is not a single diplomatic paper, U.N. resolution, newspaper headline, piece of known correspondence, photographic image or any other documentation that refers to Arabs as anything other than "Arabs," although references to Jews as Palestinians is abundant.

So, if on Feb. 1, editors collude with Amnesty International and run headlines in synchrony complaining of imaginary apartheid in a land where Arabs and Jews earn equal wages, and where Arabs can achieve in society in a way that they cannot anywhere else in the Middle East – including the Palestinian Authority, for that matter – and wield political power disproportionate to their numbers, then it will be a triumph for the Orwellian nature of media narratives in our times.

For those who can get sufficiently beyond the fake narrative to open a book or check the facts, they'll see that the headlines will be just another attempt not only to display a shiny object during these tense times but actually to create one where none exists.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Today, we speak of a largely forgotten ethnic cleansing largely unparalleled in the history of humanitarian abuses. Recall the coordinated international expulsion of some 850,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim lands, where they had lived peaceably for as long as 27 centuries. As some know, in 2014, the Israeli government set aside Nov. 30 as a commemoration of this mass atrocity.

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It has had no real identity or name like "Kristallnacht." But today, from this day forward, the day will be known as Yom HaGirush: "Expulsion Day."

It has been a years-long road to identify and solidify this identity. It began the moment that Hitler came to power in 1933.

The international Pan-Arab community, coordinated out of Palestine and spanning four continents, formed a vibrant political and later military alliance with the Nazis. This partnership functioned in the rarefied corridors of governments, the riot-torn streets of many cities on all sides of the oceans and eventually the gun-powdered trenches and frontlines of war-strangled Europe.

The overseer of this alliance was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, but he led an eager coalition of Arab leaders organized into the Arab Higher Committee, along with popular supporters from the Arab street. They had fused with Nazi ideology and goals, which included the destruction of the Jews and the defeat of British influence.

After the Mufti fled criminal prosecution in Jewish Palestine in Oct. 1937, he relocated to Baghdad. Iraq became the new center of gravity for the Arab-Nazi collaboration. By the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Iraqi Arabs under the guidance of the Mufti had imported all sorts of Nazi ideology and confederation into Iraq. On June 1-2, 1941, as Germany was poised to attack Russia and needed Arab oil, Nazi Arabs in Iraq launched a bloody two-day pogrom against its Jewish community, which had dwelled there for 2,700 years – a 1,000 years before Muhammad.

The hyphenation of "Arab-Nazi" applies, not merely because these Arabs were fascist in mind and deed, but because they actually identified with Germany's Nazi Party. Some rioters wore swastikas; many had actually marched in the Nuremberg torchlight parades. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party adopted a flag that spun off from Nazi Germany's.

In that nightmare June 1-2 riot, Jews were hunted in the streets. When found, Jewish girls were raped in front of their parents; fathers were beheaded in front of their children; mothers were brutalized in public; babies were sliced in half and thrown into the Tigris River. The Baghdad mobs burned dozens of Jewish shops, invaded Jewish homes and looted them.

We will never know how many hundreds were murdered or mutilated because in the investigation that followed, many were afraid to come forward. But that bloody event became known as the Farhud, meaning violent dispossession. The Farhud spelled the beginning of the end of Iraqi Jewry – more than 140,000 souls.

Just before the State of Israel declared its independence in 1948, the Arab League promised the world that it would execute a mass expulsion of all of it Jews. The Arab League actually coordinated forms and procedures among more than a dozen countries.

For example, in Iraq, Law 51 on criminality was modified to include "Zionist" – which could be defined as any Jew found with a Hebrew marking even from a prayer book. Law 1 on denaturalization was modified to deprive Jews of their long-held citizenship, and then Law 5 permitted confiscation of Jewish assets.

Similar disenfranchisements were repeated across the Arab and Muslim world. Guiding and assisting in these processes were some 2,000 Nazis – ex-concentration camp guards, Gestapo, SS officers and Wehrmacht commanders who had escaped Nuremberg trials to continue Hitler's war against the Jews – but now in the Middle East.

At the same time, the Arab League promised to invade the new State of Israel. "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre, which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres," promised Azzam Pasha, secretary-general of the Arab League.

For four months, the World Jewish Congress pleaded with the United Nations, then convening in Lake Success, New York, to stop the ethnic cleansing. Was this a secret? Hardly. The New York Times was then the newspaper of record in the United States. Its bold-type headline alarum declared "Jews in Grave Danger in All Moslem Lands."

The article prominently listed the expelling countries and how many thousands of Jews would be ethnically cleansed. French Morocco: 190,000; Iraq: 130,000; Algeria: 120,000; and on, until the total touched the dark edge of 900,000.

In many countries, it was made clear to the Jews that if they resisted, they would be subjected to more Farhuds and then deported to Nazi-style concentration camps. After all, Arab regimes during WWII, led by the Mufti, made efforts to send Jews to Auschwitz.

The Mufti had been given guided tours of several camps, including the SS's camp-system headquarters. During the war, local officials throughout the Arab-influenced world set up concentration camps as centers of slave labor and torture. Of the dozens of camps in Arab lands, names such as Im Fout in Morocco, Djelfa in Algeria and Giado in Libya have been lost to faded footnotes.

By the late 1940s, Farhud-invoking songs were popular, and numerous mini-Farhud pogroms had already burned through Jewish communities. So, community by community, the Jews were carted to remote locations where clandestine airlifts – often organized by the company that became Alaska Airlines – flew the Jews, packed in like human sardines, out to Israel.

The Arabs thought that they were creating a demographic bomb for the new State of Israel. But Israel's refugee camps were quite temporary, and most of the hundreds of thousands were fully absorbed into the Jewish state.

This crime against humanity swelled Israel's population almost by half, demographically converting the largely European population of newly independent Israel to one that was half Sephardic or Mizrahi – essentially derived from Arab states. This Arab-engineered expulsion gives the great lie to the smear that Israelis are a bunch of well-off Jews from London, Los Angeles and Lvov. And it re-focuses and balances the issue of Arab refugees from 1948.

In 1948, the newly formed and fabricated state of Jordan invaded and created the West Bank. In three official conferences in Ramallah, Jericho and Hebron, the Arabs voted to create no separate national identity, but rather become subjects of Jordan.

In 1964, as Israel proved that it could not be driven into the Sea, the Soviet KGB helped engineer the creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Arabs then expropriated the name "Palestinians" from Zionists – basically committing identity theft.

No one can show me any identification of Arabs as Palestinians before 1964. On "The Edwin Black Show," I have publicly asked for just one example. Yet the "Palestinian" cause has been championed – based on false history, fake facts, Jewish ignorance and the forgotten realities of 850,000 expelled Jews.

There have been many expulsions and forced migrations in history. The Spanish Inquisition broadly covers a single sphere of expulsion. The Trail of Tears covers one category of forced migrations, that of Native Americans. But never since the Roman Empire has the world seen some 15 countries openly coordinate the deprivation and expulsion of their citizens based solely on their religion.

Even though this grave act was always a flame burning in the families of the dispossessed, it was forgotten by the world. The "sha-sha" virus can infect an entire people proving there is both collective memory and collective amnesia.

But I stumbled upon the Farhud in researching my 2003 book Banking on Baghdad. This rekindled the torch of awareness.

"The Farhud Recognition Project," energized by Sephardim in the United States, only asked for the mass murder to be remembered. I dove further into the topic, resulting in my 2010 book, The Farhud – Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust, which tracked the Arab-Nazi alliance, the awful pogroms and the post-war expulsion.

In June 2015, I and a group of committed communal leaders were able to do what many memory-seared families called the impossible: proclaim International Farhud Day at the United Nations in a historic event globally live-streamed by the UN itself.

But I always wanted to do more and give identity and homage to the mass expulsion. This month, with the support of my colleagues in many countries, on a special edition of "The Edwin Black Show," I proclaimed Nov. 30 forevermore to be a day of remembrance named "Yom HaGirush."

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That name, Yom HaGirush, marks when Jewish communities across many countries were once again dispossessed, but became repossessed in the free nation of Israel. The Jewish state now possesses these people and their descendants – and they in turn now possess their Jewish state. Possession is nine-tenths of survival. Israel has become the final stop for the Jews.

From Morocco to India, and from Yemen to Afghanistan, the lives and centuries of legacies were incinerated. It was done in broad daylight with barely a murmur from the world.

It happened not even five years after the world learned that six million Jews had been exterminated and millions more made refugees. Mark it down on a piece of paper: Yom HaGirush. YomHaGirush.com is now in embryonic form, but soon will be a vibrant worldwide resource and a warning to the world that when we say, "Never again," we mean it.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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An egregious lie has been making the rounds lately. It is a timeworn smear against the Jewish people in a modern guise.

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The ancient blood libel – "Jews are poisoners," used to stoke anti-Semitic violence through the ages, from the Black Death to tainted wells – has reappeared. This time, it is the claim that Israel is denying COVID-19 vaccinations to its non-Jewish citizens and to the residents of the not-yet-sovereign Palestinian Authority. This lie is the same as its predecessors.

Yet the vaccine slander is being widely disseminated by Israel's enemies, especially on college campuses. On March 2, for example, the Palestine Solidarity Committee held a teach-in at the University of Texas at Austin alleging "medical apartheid" not only as part of Israel's COVID-19 response but in the ability of pregnant Palestinian women to access hospitals, allegedly leading to roadside deaths related to childbirth.

Also in March, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Chicago held a three-day campaign called "End Medical Apartheid," alleging that Israel denies Palestinians proper health treatment, drawing parallels to healthcare inequities for non-white Chicagoans. Likewise, SJP at the University of Maryland held an open Zoom call to share the claim of "medical apartheid."

One misleading claim pushed by the medical apartheid libel is that Israel is responsible for, but has failed, to vaccinate all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Similar assertions have been advanced in The New York Times and on MSNBC, as well as by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The Vermont senator called it "outrageous" for Israel to send vaccines to its allies before the Palestinian population is fully vaccinated. One writer in The Forward alleged that Israel is "classifying people by ethnic identity – and allocating a life-saving resource accordingly" – a slander that The Forward later retracted.

Media amplification of the blood libel, as occurred generations earlier in Eastern Europe, has been a boon to anti-Israel radicals. This newest medical-apartheid slur has become a significant driver for efforts to undermine support for the State of Israel in the United States.

Even casual observers on the ground know that the facts are the opposite. It is the Palestinian Authority itself that hoards the Israeli medical permits it controls for its elite while denying the same access to its population. The PA's healthcare malfeasance mirrors its well-known economic misdeeds.

To be clear, Israel does not in any way discriminate by ethnicity or religion in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign. It has made headlines for vaccinating a larger percentage of its population than any country in the world; this includes both Jews and non-Jews.

While the rate of participation in both the Arab-Israeli community and some parts of the Orthodox Jewish community has lagged behind that of other parts of the population due to intrinsic social factors, as of March, Israeli health statistics estimated that among Israelis aged 50 or older, 68% of the country's Arab citizens had been vaccinated at least once, and Haredi Jews about 72%. These numbers compare with 89% among other Israelis.

Under the governing Oslo Accords, which constitute international law on the subject, public-health responsibility for most of the Palestinian population was transferred decades ago from Israel to the PA Yet even before the outbreak of the pandemic, opponents of Israel had accused it of "medical apartheid" for not providing Palestinians the same quality of medical care that Israelis receive. The opposite is the case.

The PA declared in 2019 that it would not allow patients to receive medical care in Israel, denying treatment to roughly 20,000 Palestinians annually, based on the number granted prior authorization by Israel. The PA took the action against its own citizens in retaliation for Israel's adoption of $138 million in financial measures against the PA's "pay-for-slay" policy.

Palestinian journalist Fathi Sabbah was painfully typical when he publicly complained that his daughter, Rima, was denied a permit by Ramallah officials for treatment of her rare blood disease. Yet Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian negotiator, was rushed to a Jerusalem hospital when he faced a COVID-19 respiratory crisis. Other elite Palestinian officials have received similar priority care.

The situation has continued well into the COVID-19 crisis, with Palestinian officials reiterating in December 2020 that they had not approached Israel for help in obtaining vaccines, and were planning to purchase them independently with the help of the international community.

"We are not a department in the Israeli Defense Ministry. We have our own government and Ministry of Health," a PA official announced to The Jerusalem Post, "and they are making huge efforts to get the vaccine." The Palestinians have sought several foreign sources, especially Russia, for scarce vaccines. In spite of the prohibitions on health outreach, Israel has managed to contribute a modest number of vaccines to the PA.

Unforgivably worse, in May 2020, before the United Arab Emirate established formal relations with Israel, the PA refused $14 million worth of COVID-19 supplies donated by Dubai with UN facilitation, arrogantly explaining that the Etihad airplane transporting the supplies should not have landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport, the nearest to Ramallah.

At a time when the world was scrambling, the PA refused urgent medical supplies intended to stem the spread among its people, because it did not like the airport to which the supplies were delivered. A PA official told reporters, "Palestinians refuse to be a bridge [for Arab countries] seeking to have normalized ties with Israel."

In terms of apartheid, it is the PA insisting that when it achieves sovereignty, not a single Jew will be allowed to live in its territory, and even now punishes Arabs with death for selling land to Jews. Of salient importance in Gaza is the underlying cause of the lack of medical infrastructure.

But why? Iran-sponsored Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, diverts foreign aid to build tunnels and other terrorist infrastructure. It is estimated that the cost of terrorist tunnels would pay for 35 hospitals to serve the small enclave, making it a medical haven.

Israel wants its entire population vaccinated. In addition to its Arab population, Israel has voluntarily undertaken to vaccinate any residents of eastern Jerusalem, including those beyond the security barrier. Palestinians in Israeli jails, including terrorists, have received vaccinations.

And in February, Israel announced that it would inoculate more than 120,000 Palestinian workers employed in Israel or the West Bank. By March 18, more than 105,000 Palestinian workers had been vaccinated. Obviously, Israel urgently wants to vaccinate everyone it can, of any background. The Jewish State's COVID-19 successes could not have been possible without aggressively vaccinating the 20 percent of its population that is Arab, and the scores of thousands of Palestinians who choose to work daily in Israel.

Notably, most vaccines delivered to the Palestinians so far, including through the international vaccine-sharing COVAX program, have traveled through Ben-Gurion International Airport, despite the PA's self-wounding earlier refusal. These medicines have been delivered to the West Bank through Israeli logistics.

Given Israel's prodigious efforts to inoculate its entire population, both Jewish and Arab, as well as those Palestinians for whose public health Israel is responsible under the relevant international obligations, why has the poisonous narrative of discrimination blazoned across headlines worldwide? It doesn't take a medical detective to notice a pattern.

Israel's nemeses, foreign and domestic, are engaged in a generational struggle to delegitimize the Jewish state's very right to exist. No good deed is too good to weaponize again Israel, whether it is disaster relief, economic opportunity for minorities or medical assistance.

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By portraying Israel as an oppressor, its enemies hope to solicit the support of everyone who roots for the underdog. Make no mistake, these are the same savvy foes who are attempting to recruit young people by tapping into movements for change in the United States and casting Israel as an evil player. But the opposite is true.

By thoroughly vaccinating its population, Israel leads the world on the path to recovery from the deadly pandemic. But the solid truth matters little when the enemies of Israel are ready to propagate updated medieval lies on today's college campuses and beyond.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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According to Israeli activist watchdog groups such as Regavim, during the last five years, illegal Palestinian settlements and infrastructure have sprawled across more than 9,000 dunams (9 square kilometers) in more than 250 Area C locations, supported by more than 600 kilometers of illegally constructed access roads and more than 112,000 meters of retaining walls and terracing. This massive works project is being conducted in broad daylight, often heralded by tall announcement placards and press releases.

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Israeli government officials contacted did not dispute the Regavim numbers. In exasperation, one military spokesman close to the Area C files estimated "close to 10,000" illegal construction efforts are now underway, adding they feel "powerless to stop them."

In the 1990s, after years of diplomatic wrangling, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Oslo Accords, envisioning a peaceful two-state solution. Under the complex Oslo Accords, the "West Bank" is divided into three separate administrative zones: Areas A, B, and C.

Area A is reserved for Palestinian civil and administrative control and seats the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Area B is governed by Palestinian civil control under a joint Israeli-Palestinian security apparatus.

The majority of Area C residents are Israelis – an estimated 325,000 alongside some 300,000 Arabs. Under the Oslo Accords, only the Israeli Civil Administration can authorize new construction in the zone for Israeli Jews and for Arabs alike.

But in 2009, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Fayyad introduced the so-called Fayyad Plan, well-described by a 2011 article in the Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture as having "the potential to dramatically transform the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, by extension, the Middle Eastern political landscape." The analysis adds, "The essence of the Fayyad plan involves establishing an internationally recognized demilitarized Palestinian state encompassing both the West Bank and Gaza, based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Since August 2009, Fayyad, with the help of the Barack Obama administration and the European Union, has been quietly building national institutions and physical infrastructure … in the West Bank."

To create a de facto Palestinian state without further negotiation or even diplomatic consultation with the Israelis, European countries – individually and through the European Union – have pumped hundreds of millions of euros annually into scores of illegal state-building and related projects, called Area C "interventions." Just one cluster of the European Union Area C Development Programme boasts a €300 million annual commitment, and within three years, is budgeted to reach about 1.5 billion euros. A single 1,650-meter road near Jenin in Area C was funded with a €500,000 allocation.

The Area C Palestinian boom advances without any coordination with Israelis about land use, security, environmental impacts or close proximity to Jewish villages. The PA's 2014 Roots Project greatly accelerated the entire process. Thus, European governments and the PA have completed the shredding of the already weakened Oslo agreements.

Most of the new Area C settlements are not natural Arab urban growth or urban sprawl. Rather, they are often strategically scattered to effectively carve up Area C, sometimes to surround Jewish villages and sometimes to push onto Israeli nature or military reserves.

In many instances, Arab residents from Areas A and B are bused in, encouraged by incentives to relocate or start a second home in the new settlements. Some structures are makeshift, festooned with the logo of the European Union. Some are multi-floor office centers. Others turn out to be palatial homes. The gamut of construction styles can be seen.

In several cases, the illegal constructions are deliberately established on Israeli military reserves. Since the 1970s, Israel Defense Forces have maintained military training and firing ranges, such as Firing Zone 918. That zone now has illegal settlements.

One road, dubbed Smuggler's Route, courses through the hills from the Palestinian city of Yatta all the way to the Arad Valley in the Negev Desert.

In prior years, Israel's Civil Administration boasted of its many Palestinian construction permits. A glowing report cites 328 projects authorized during 2011 and 2012. That number has drastically diminished because Area C Palestinians no longer apply for permits; they deny Israel's right to issue them. Now, they just start building.

While the sudden development rush has been percolating in the Jewish and Israeli media, many Jewish leaders worldwide are completely unaware of this phenomenon. Many are incredulous that the Israeli government has not acted to block the illegal projects. But a security spokesman close to the Area C files located in Bet El blames the inaction on Israel's complex legal system.

"When we discover something," stated a security spokesman, "we give them a stop order, and if they don't stop, they are summoned to an [adjudication] panel. But they don't come. They go to court to enjoin us."

These court cases are frequently financed and represented by well-funded nongovernmental organizations, such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The Gordian knot of legal principles to parse includes Ottoman land law from a long-dismantled empire, Jordanian law from the withdrawn 1948 illegal occupation, post-Six Day War military administrative law, and a library of international legal codes – all stoked and poked with competing maps, surveys, expert opinions, decrees, chronologies and historical accounts.

"It can take years to decide, and without a court ruling, we cannot get close," lamented the spokesman. "Meanwhile, they are still building. We can't do anything about it." The spokesman said that going to court "can take half a year – or four years. There is no specific time. Each case is different. We have some cases that were opened 15 years ago."

Once the court rules, if Israel takes enforcement action with bulldozers, the international headlines, EU accusations of war crimes, threats of sanctions, close-up photos of weeping people and the overall global uproar make being legally right a very unappealing political idea. The EU NGOs and illegal settlers know this.

What makes the Palestinian settlements "illegal" is the thin wisp of Oslo that remains. The accords have now been fractured so many times that what remains is only the preserved corpse of a long-deceased vision.

At the end of July 2019, when the Israeli cabinet voted to authorize an extra 715 permits, the Palestinian response was immediate. Shtayyeh declared: "We don't need permission from the occupying power to build our homes on our lands," adding that the Oslo classification of land into A, B, and C "no longer exists."

Before year's end, the PA is expected to issue thousands of new permits further circumventing Oslo. As Palestinian expansion roils across Area C, the prospect looms of Gaza fence-style encounters coming soon to a hill in Judea and Samaria.

As Area C dynamics become clearer, still murky is the source and route of the diverse European funding that enables this confrontation. What's more, there is widespread fear that millions in funds are continuously funneled through entities openly accused of being affiliated with established terrorist organizations.

See also: Funding illegal Palestinian settlements: Confronting history and Funding illegal Palestinian settlements: Links to terrorists.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Most observers of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis are accustomed to hearing talk of "illegal Jewish settlements" on slivers of land comprising 1 to 2% of the West Bank, mostly near Israel's Green Line. But attention now focuses on an explosion of thousands of illegal Palestinian constructions: village clusters, agricultural tracts, water networks, roads and general infrastructure crisscrossing Area C of the West Bank. All of this violates the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accords, which specify full Israeli administrative control in Area C. Under the international agreement, only the Israeli Civil Administration can authorize new construction in the zone – for Israeli and Arab alike. However, continuous waves of recent Palestinian settlements are being established without permits, often without even bothering to apply. One senior official of the Israeli security apparatus called it "the Wild West."

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According to Israeli activist watchdog groups such as Regavim, in the past half-decade, illegal Palestinian settlements and infrastructure have sprawled across more than 9,000 dunams (9 16square kilometers) in more than 250 Area C locations, supported by more than 600 kilometers of illegally constructed access roads and more than 112,000 meters of retaining walls and terracing. This massive works project is being conducted in broad daylight, often heralded by announcement placards and press releases.

When questioned, various Israeli government officials did not dispute the Regavim numbers. In exasperation, one military spokesman close to the Area C files located at Beit El estimated "close to 10,000" illegal construction efforts are now underway, adding that they felt "powerless to stop them." The rapid buildup is funded by hundreds of millions of euros annually, funneled by the European Union and individual European nations into scores of building and infrastructure projects.

Understanding the tortuous history that created the current sovereignty vacuum in Area C can be daunting and confusing.

Leaving out 99% of everything … the indigenous Israelites of Canaan were expelled starting in 70 CE by the Romans, who renamed the region "Syria-Palaestina" – or Palestine, for the Philistine sea invaders from the Greek Islands. In about 637 CE, the Islamic invasion swept up from the Arabian Peninsula to conquer and convert. For about four centuries, the Turkish Ottoman Empire governed until its 1918 defeat in World War I. Afterwards, the Allies dismembered Ottoman colonies throughout the Middle East and concomitantly encouraged self-determination for ethnic peoples across the Levant. The League of Nations, in association with 51 countries and competing nationalist groups, eventually established five modern Arab countries: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, modern Hejaz (Arabia) and post-colonial modern Egypt, plus one democratic and pluralistic Jewish state in Palestine. The original 1920 Mandate boundaries of the modern Jewish state extended from the Mediterranean Sea across the area now known as Jordan – a country that then did not exist.

The Arabs were shortchanged by the French in their quest for an Arab kingdom in Syria. In recompense, the British modified the Palestine Mandate in September 1922 by virtue of an official memorandum, carving off some 70% of the intended Jewish nation to invent Transjordan (now Jordan) – the territory extended from the Jordan River east to the borders of Iraq and what is now Saudi Arabia. For decades, co-existence between Arabs and Jews in the former Turkish colony could not be achieved. In 1947, the nonbinding UN Resolution 181 – known as partition – recommended side-by-side Jewish and Arab states. In those days, the identity of the two peoples was "Arab" and "Jewish," as local Arabs did not adopt the identity of "Palestinian" until about 1964.

Israel accepted partition, but the Arabs refused. The surrounding League-created Arab nations attacked the newly declared Jewish state. In 1948, Jordan (created by the British memo) illegally invaded and annexed the area west of the Jordan River, including eastern Jerusalem, thus coining the new term, "West Bank" for the still-disputed former Turkish colonial provinces.

In June 1967, when Israel fought its preemptive Six-Day War and expelled Jordan, the Jewish state occupied this same disputed former Turkish colonial region, still called the West Bank. In 1988, Jordan rescinded any claim of sovereignty, deepening the sovereignty vacuum.

In 1993 and 1995, after years of diplomatic wrangling, Israel and the avowed Palestine Liberation Organization terror group signed the Oslo Accords, envisioning a peaceful two-state solution. Under these accords and subsequent modifications at Wye, Sharm el-Sheikh and elsewhere, the "West Bank" was divided into three separate administrative zones: Areas A, B, and C.

Area A is reserved for Palestinian civil and administrative control and seats the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Area B is governed by Palestinian civil control under a joint Israeli-Palestinian security apparatus.

Area C comprises roughly 60% of the West Bank. It more closely resembles the biblical and original international demarcation of a Jewish state during the initial League of Nations Mandate but is now considered occupied by the international community. The majority of Area C residents are Israelis – an estimated 325,000 alongside some 300,000 Arabs. In essence, Oslo normalized and structured the Israeli occupation and administration of the disputed former Turkish lands.

But by virtue of a cumulative multibillion-euro effort, European capitals are working hard to destabilize the last pillars of the Oslo Accords. Thus, these countries seek to create a Palestinian state along the 1949 armistice line (also known as the pre-1967 lines) without further consulting the Jewish state. This ensures that the Palestinian Authority knows it need not negotiate with Jerusalem, even as the United States and Gulf countries make a daring dash to achieve peace.

As the urgency of Area C is becoming clearer, still murky is the source of the diverse European funding that enables this conflict and the routes those billions of euros take across the Mediterranean. What's more, there is widespread fear that millions in funds are continuously funneled through entities openly accused of being affiliated with established terrorist organizations.

See also: Funding illegal Palestinian settlements: Links to terrorists and Funding illegal Palestinian settlements: Nearly 10,000 cases.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Funding illegal Palestinian settlements: Confronting history appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

According to Israeli activist watchdog groups, such as Regavim, during the last five years, illegal Palestinian settlements and infrastructure have sprawled across more than 9,000 dunams (9 square kilometers or 3.5 square miles) in more than 250 Area C locations, supported by more than 600 kilometers (370 miles) of illegally constructed access roads, and more than 112,000 yards (63.6 miles) of retaining walls and terracing. This massive works project is being conducted in broad daylight. Palestinians no longer apply for permits in Area C; they deny Israel's right to issue them. Now, they just start building, powered by millions of annual euros in joint projects with the European Union.

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How is the money routed? Among the many NGO recipients, one name keeps appearing: Union of Agricultural Work Committees.

A 2012 French Foreign Ministry report listing a €354,489 (about $466,000 at the time), multiyear water-development project states: "The first action proposed under this Action Plan is being carried out by the Union of Agriculture Work Committees," adding, "UAWC … is responsible for project management." Agence Française de Dévelopment (AFD) committed €130,000 () to the UAWC, also in 2012, according to a 2012 Ernst and Young audit of the NGO Development Center. In February 2019, AFD also announced, "Union of Agricultural Workers Committees and relevant stakeholders … [would be] granted by AFD amounts up to €232,000 out of a budget of €650,000."

In 2010, German governmental and foundation sources included the UAWC in a series of €630,000 Palestinian grants extended to anti-Israel boycott and activist groups, according to the 2010 annual report of the health rescue group Medico, which channeled the money. Medico annual reports in 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2017 also list the UAWC as a recipient. An additional 2010 Medico grant of €180,000 funded UAWC in a program to assist "the fight against repression by the Israeli administration." The UAWC was also included in Medico's 2012 grant of €1.2 million to establish "kindergartens for unrecognized villages."

In 2016, Spanish governmental agencies extended grants totaling €184,000 to the UAWC, according to a 2016 official Spanish governmental bulletin. In 2017, the Netherlands Representative Office in Ramallah announced an $11.2 million water project with the UAWC.

The UAWC's financial reports are hard to come by, but its 2014 total income reached more than $43.1 million. The group's income streams are diverse – from governmental units and foundations. Its key involvement in illegal Area C infrastructure is salient.

Yet for decades, open allegations have been publicly aired alleging links between the UAWC and the Popular Front for the Liberation Palestine. The PFLP is one of the most notorious of Palestinian terrorist groups, so designated for decades by the United States, the European Union, and other nations. And still, foundations and governments continue to robustly fund UAWC.

Accusations that the UAWC is directly linked to the PFLP are no secret.

In May 1993, USAID's Democratic Institutions Support Project "took a political economy lens" to popular movements in the Middle East, according to Professor Glenn E. Robinson, who has frequently consulted for USAID. Back in the 1990s, Robinson's fieldwork in the West Bank included interviews with leading personalities of the UAWC and the PFLP. His report, Palestinian Institutional Configurations in the West Bank and Gaza, declared, "The PFLP's agricultural extension services are provided by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC)." That USAID report became the basis for a book titled "Building a Palestinian State – the Incomplete Revolution," published by Indiana University Press. The Middle East Studies Association's book review lauded it: "powerful and compelling … scholarship impeccable."

Contacted at the prestigious Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, Ca., Robinson recalled that his research showed the UAWC was indeed "linked and affiliated" to, and also "shared resources with" the PFLP. USAID still distributes Robinson's original report online.

A 2012 Fatah organizational chart purports to list all PFLP units. It includes an entry for the UAWC under "Affiliated Institutions." The web page has since been deleted, but an Internet Archive has preserved it. A translation from Arabic to English of the purported key listing midway down the document can be seen here. The words "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine" can be located in Arabic in the middle of the document as a subhead just above the date 11/12/1967. Robinson examined the archived page and confirmed, "Each of the main four factions in the 1980s had essentially the same list of linked groups and competed with each other as part of the broad political mobilization of Palestinian society."

Former senior PFLP leader Bashir Kairi functioned as UAWC's president for years. He signed the UAWC's annual reports until about 2009. As far back as 2003, CNN reported that Kairi had been arrested as a key figure in Israel after a major assassination, stating, "Palestinian sources said those arrested included Bashir al-Khairi, head of the PFLP political bureau." In 2012, UAWC was prominently accused of terrorist links to the PFLP by Shurat HaDin, an Israeli legal group. Shurat HaDin demanded that World Vision and the Australian government cease funding UAWC. Australian authorities and World Vision refused.

In July 2018, Amnesty International issued an "Urgent Action" notice that begins, "Abdul Razeq Farraj, Finance and Administration Director at the Union of Agricultural Work Committees … was released from Ofer prison."

The statement described Farraj as "the Finance and Administration Director at the Union of Agricultural Work Committees … for more than 30 years." The next paragraph adds, "In addition, he has served a six-year sentence in an Israeli prison after being convicted of affiliation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine." Farraj appended a personal statement to the public notice, "I would like to express my deep gratitude, for your continuous support to the Palestinian people and to UAWC." Farraj's current LinkedIn self-lists him as "UAWC administrative manager." His listing at the Addameer prisoner support organization's website indicates Farraj has repeatedly been in prison on terrorism charges, yet also "Director of Finance & Administration at Union of Agricultural Work Committees."

In 2017, Israel's Shin Bet security agency notified the UAWC, "The information we have indicates that the organization 'Union of Agricultural Work Committees,' based in the Gaza Strip, operates under the auspices of the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine," according to a copy of the confidential security document obtained.

Over recent years, articles publicly accusing or reporting on UAWC's alleged terrorist links have periodically appeared in Jewish News Syndicate, The Times of Israel, The Jewish Press and The Jerusalem Post. NGO Monitor, which tracks anti-Israel NGO misconduct, maintains a page filled with links, recently updated and confirmed, documenting UAWC's connection to the PFLP.

"It's clear from the evidence that the UAWC is closely linked with the PFLP," concludes Caroline Turner, director of UK Lawyers for Israel, who has studied the UAWC. Yifa Segal, director of the International Legal Forum, active in litigation involving UAWC, asserts, "I would say that it's an inherent part of the PFLP – that doesn't mean that they are the same legal entity, or that each organization doesn't have its own leadership." Attorney Andrew Hamilton, who has also filed legal actions involving UAWC, comments, "Based on my extensive research since 2012, it is quite clear that the UAWC is an arm of the proscribed terrorist group, the PFLP. It is controlled by and acts in the interests of the PFLP."

Despite, the growing body of public information about the UAWC and the PFLP, there is no indication that any of its donors intend to reduce the millions they are sending the UAWC for illegal development projects in Area C.

The UAWC and its defenders have repeatedly stressed that it has no ties to the PFLP. Repeated documented efforts to reach the UAWC and its leaders, including Bashir Kairi and Abdul Razeq Farraj, as well as the PFLP, for comment were unsuccessful.

See also: Funding illegal Palestinian settlements: Confronting history and Funding illegal Palestinian settlements: Nearly 10,000 cases.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Funding illegal Palestinian settlements: Links to terrorists appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The "D" stands for divestment, though the movement also strives to delegitimize. So the anti-Israel movement also targeted the country's very identity and legacy. A people's future cannot be stolen unless first their history is abducted. BDS not only attacked Israel's tourism industry but also the country's single greatest and most meaningful attraction: its multifaith religious roots.

Yes, Israel features excitement and awesome beauty in its museums and architectonic urban spaces, as well as in the country's deserts and caves, and on hill treks, river trips, zip lines and jeep excursions, not to mention its nightlife. Then again, many nations offer outstanding museums, mountains and wilderness. However, there is one unique tourist attraction that Israel possesses that no other nation can offer and that the people of all nations crave: its unrivaled religious heritage. This heritage is inextricably woven into the country's national identity.

All three major Abrahamic religions are anchored in Israel.

Christians constitute the majority of tourists visiting Israel, many on religious quests. Generally speaking, Christian pilgrims are completely detached from Palestinian and Israeli political dynamics. Christian tourists can be seen on any day. On April 27, 2019, Holy Saturday before Orthodox Easter Sunday, some 10,000 Christian pilgrims from across the world tried to squeeze into the hopelessly overcrowded Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City for the 1,200-year old "Holy Fire" rite.

On Ramadan, Muslims crowd into Jerusalem. In 2019, on the first Friday of Ramadan, 180,000 peacefully attended prayers – a 50% increase over 2018. In 2018, on the last day of Ramadan, some 200,000 Muslims gathered at the Al Aqsa mosque for their prayers. The faithful generally include hundreds from Arab and Islamic countries lacking diplomatic relations with Israel. For example, until a recent bilateral spat, Indonesians were regularly issued visas to tour Jerusalem.

During Passover 2019, some 750,000 Jews visited the Western Wall, many wedging a tiny note to God in the spaces between the massive stones.

Despite the intense spiritual connections to Israel, BDS has tried to boycott the Dead Sea Scrolls; Ireland has tried to criminalize the purchase of relics and religious mementos from the Via Dolorosa; and there has even emerged an almost-comical but persistent misinformation campaign, corollary to BDS, that asserts that the Second Temple never even existed as Jewish edifice.

Walking and sloshing past old stones

Amid all the veneration of Israel as a Holy Land – and against this international BDS campaign – two Jerusalem tunnels have emerged as among Israel's greatest attractions, luring tourists from many countries. In the process, testifying from beneath the surface, these tunnels manifest Israel's inhalable connection to the land and its history.

Most prominent are the Western Wall tunnels. Only an approximately 200-foot section of the Wall is above ground. The rest, nearly 1,600 feet, lies underground and can only be experienced via the tunnel complex. The monolithic testament to Judaism's ancient connection to biblical Jerusalem is revealed in the enormity of the massive stones and their tell-tale chisel marks. One such stone weighs more than 500 tons – one of the heaviest ever handled.

So many tourists are visiting, the official tunnel web site now posts in Chinese, English, Spanish, French, Russian and Portuguese, as well as Hebrew. The most popular foreign languages are Spanish, French and Russian. In 2017, about 320,000 visitors from all over the world toured the tunnels, according to tunnel administration, who adds that the 2018 number approximated 400,000. The 2019 tally is expected to hit another new record.

All these visitors come against a backdrop of agitation against official or diplomatic visits to the wall, especially after the controversial 2016 U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334 that declared the Western Wall occupied territory. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration broke that taboo. On May 14, 2019, attorney Alan Dershowitz invited all to join him in committing "a war crime" by visiting the wall and slipping a note in the crevices.

The second major underground attraction is Hezekiah's Tunnel, a below-ground water conduit approximately 600 yards in length – that is, 1,200 cubits. This length corresponds to the tunnel's stone inscription discovered in 1880 and now residing in a Turkish museum. The amazing engineering feat was presumably the work of King Hezekiah ahead of a siege by Assyrian King Sennacherib at the end of the eighth century BCE, described and alluded to in several biblical passages. Among those texts is 2 Chronicles 32:2-4, which states, "When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. They gathered a large group of people who blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. 'Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?' they said."

Tunnel-diggers are said to have started at opposite ends, advanced towards each other, and, astonishingly, met in the middle to form a perfect conduit and gradient.

For some years, biblical archaeologists have argued about the exact dating of the tunnel and whether it was accomplished under the reign of Hezekiah or another king. But for travelers, the main attraction is the ankle-deep wet walk through the tunnel – and its riveting nexus to ancient Israel.

Despite its dramatic connection to ancient Israel, a vigorous taboo has been promoted by international critics who claim that the subterranean water conduit is located beneath the Arab neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh. Nonetheless, in 2017, more than 557,100 visited the City of David, and most sloshed through the underground passage. In 2018, the total jumped to more than 833,000. With 207,280 tunnel visitors in the first quarter of 2019, the year-end tally may reach near a million. City of David officials say that most visitors are Americans but that the number of Chinese tourists is rising dramatically.

It is the measure of Israel's tourism turbulence that even the most dramatic archeological manifestation of the Jewish connection to its ancient homeland has become a contentious flashpoint. But as in all other aspects of its international travel appeal, Israel's biblical tunnels are now permanently dug into the Jewish state's tourism triumph.

Edwin Black is a syndicated columnist who travels extensively, frequently reviewing the hotels he stays in. He personally and independently paid for all aspects of travel mentioned in this series.

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Israel's tourism triumph: The lure below appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

As far as the Israeli restaurant scene is considered, "BDS" stands for only one thing: "Breakfast, Dinner and Sweets." Across the country, Israeli restaurants sizzle with celebrity chefs and horizon-expanding culinary wizardry.

Decades ago, Israel's culinary scene was largely defined by omnipresent falafel, shawarma and pizza stands, tomatoes and cucumbers sliced with endless variation, carrot-juice vendors, over-glitzed coffee and pastry bars, and truck stop-style roadside eateries offering spiced Moroccan-style salads in drab arrays. Sameness and no sophistication were the main flavors of the day – every day. All that's over.

In recent years, highly trained and innovative (if feisty) chefs have been opening one trendy restaurant after another. Now hip dining spots can be found just about everywhere – from hotel rooftops with majestic views to disused warehouses, converted old homes, tight alleys and sidewalks, rooftops, seaside balconies, hilltop niches, spots overlooking the seashore, a hillside, or even a wall – and the sometimes just the cramped space between two other cramped spaces.

What is called "Israeli cuisine" is an undefinable fusion-on-steroids of 150 or so indigenous and immigrant cuisines that have left their traces on an unrestrained determination to reimagine past foods for the palate of the future. Most ingredients are obtained within a 15-minute to 60-minute drive, meaning unparalleled same-day freshness. Unchained, and yet somehow tethered to a Jewish and regional past, today's Israeli cuisine blends European, Arabic and Asian traditions in a visual audacity that erases taste borders. Israeli celebrity chefs, such as Yotam Ottolenghi, Eyal Shani and Michael Solomonov have burned their stamps on kitchens worldwide.

Dinner can easily cost more than $100 per person. Tourists must compete with an estimated 21 Israeli billionaires – half of whom live in Tel Aviv – and more than 100,000 millionaires churned out by the nation's rarified startup and high-tech sectors. For more than 4.1 million annual tourists, reserving a table two to five weeks in advance is a must. (Of course, much of the charm of dining in Israel are local eateries in towns and villages across the country that are cozy, inexpensive and universally good.)

Almost 200,000 people work in the restaurant industry, about half of them waiters, which has created a teeming industry touching all. Restaurants mean employment to immigrant workers, average Israelis and Palestinians who have embraced the Israeli economy. Trendy restaurants are a national pastime and uplifting social force.

Ironically, with all the dining fervor, today there are fewer restaurants in Israel today than a few years ago. The high cost of doing business and the compulsion to achieve excellence has squeezed many restaurants out of business. Moreover, the cost and tribulations of official koshering is steep, and too often simply an unnerving pressure. Many restaurants now forego kosher certification.

Most impacting, recent tax rulings on employee pensions and tips have squeezed the entire industry. About one-third of restaurants close within their first year. Margins are carpaccio-thin. Asaf Lees, co-owner of Sucre Ltd. restaurant group, quips: "Opening a restaurant in Tel Aviv today is almost impossible without the power of suppliers."

Nonetheless, Israel still offers more than 6,200 listed restaurants at present, about 1,400 of which are in Tel Aviv. Jerusalem has a full stock of many of the rest.

Any short list of recommended eateries will be immediately assailed for leaving out 100 other recommended restaurants. But … three of Tel Aviv's best restaurants are operated by one company, Sucre Ltd., which combines celebrity chef flamboyance and leveraged buying power to succeed. All three require two to three weeks to secure a table. At the top is Kitchen Market, housed above a farmer's market at Tel Aviv's north port. Noisy and crowded, the establishment is overseen by celebrity chef Yossi Shitrit, who appears on his own popular culinary TV show.

Less cacophonous is the restaurant Mashya, located in a small hotel near the beach. Also under chef Yossi's baton, it offers a more distilled environment, Mashya's presentations are just as style-revising. The third Sucre eatery is Onza, a raucous inside-outside Turkish eatery dropped into an alley in Jaffa's flea market area (the wonderfully named Shuk Hapishpeshim). Here the platters are sumptuous, and the music loud and rhythmic.

Jerusalem is also packed with must-try places. Atop the Mamilla Hotel with a spectacular view of the Old City is its Rooftop Restaurant. And the dignity and diplomatic history of Jerusalem is reflected in the unparalleled Shabbat lunch every Saturday at the King David Hotel.

Probably the most memorable eating experiences are squeezed together in the Machane Yehuda market. This ramshackle and vivacious convergence of food and all portable things sold in stalls was first established during the Ottoman Empire. You can purchase and often sample every type of exotic spice, olive, vegetable, meat or fish, cheese, bread, halvah, candy or pastry in a crowded atmosphere made electric with the unmasked pulse of Israel. On Friday afternoons, it is jam-packed, and much of the fresh produce is offered at lower prices so that it sells before Shabbat.

One of Machane Yehuda's best eateries is Azura – breakfast and lunch only – which serves supremely sumptuous Turkish and Oriental dishes in basic surroundings.

Nearby behold Machenyuda, Israel's wildest, most in-crowded and sought-after restaurant, which requires five to eight weeks for a table – that is, if they answer the phone and don't lose the reservation. Culinary mastery and innovation combine with loud music and an edge-of-the-world canteen atmosphere. If you order the insane dessert thing, prepare for shock sweets. See it here – no here. … OK, try here.

Finally, there are many emirs in Israel's restaurant scene. But only one sultan – Uri Buri, a simple cafe hidden on a dark corner at the far northern Akko coast. It is acclaimed as Israel's culinary mecca, recognized by gourmands everywhere. Guru founder chef Uri Jeremias, sporting a massive white beard cascading down to mid-belly, is worshipped for the purity, simplicity, freshness and inherent power of his seafood creations. Celebrity chefs and food aficionados alike make the 90-minute pilgrimage north of Tel Aviv to this tiny stone structure to be reminded that where food meets the soul, the elusive human quintessence can be faintly, if fleetingly, discerned.

Whether one dines at the simplistic hummus cafes of Haifa or the exquisite Michelin-endowed concept restaurants of Herzliya, an inescapable conclusion accompanies the fare: Food is good for peace. Peace is good for food. No one makes war while enjoying a good meal.

Read also Part I and Part II: Luxury hotels beckon. Next is Part IV: The Lure Below.

Edwin Black is a syndicated columnist who travels extensively, frequently reviewing the hotels he stays in. He personally and independently paid for all aspects of travel mentioned in this series.

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Israel's tourism triumph (Part III): The restaurant scene appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

For all its efforts to isolate Israel, including convincing Airbnb to remove Jewish listings in Judea and Samaria, BDS has failed to even dent Israel's triumphant tourism growth. In 2018, a record 4.1 million visitors streamed into Israel from all over the world. Massive tourist influxes are now seen from the Chinese and Indian travel markets, as well as America's Christian community.

The escalating global demand has created an increasingly acute hotel room shortage. Year-round occupancy – with many seasonal and situational carve outs – now averages some 70% nationally for the country's approximately 55,000 rooms. But on many days, Nazareth achieves 85%; Jerusalem hits 83%; Tel Aviv tops 79%; Haifa reaches 75%; and Eilat scores 72%. About half those rooms are taken by overseas visitors, not domestic tourists. An estimated 20% of all foreign visitors aren't even using hotels, opting to stay with friends and family, rent apartments or utilize alternative short-term boarding.

At times, the sheer volume can overwhelm capacity. One tourism insider indicates that a single American company, not of Jewish ownership, will be bringing 6,000 individuals to Israel in the fall of 2019 as part of a corporate incentive program. That one program is so large that no single city can host it. The company's travelers are being split between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Industry experts warn that Israel needs as many as 15,000 hotel rooms to keep up with the current growth demand. This is especially true in the north, where Christian pilgrims want to walk in the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth and dip into the Sea of Galilee. Hotel operators complain it can take five to 10 years to build a hotel due to Israeli bureaucracy. Translation: Rooms are getting scarcer and more expensive. This trend will only intensify, as Israel is seeking to double its current levels to 10 million tourists annually, competing with other Mediterranean basin nations, such as Greece, which attract more than 30 million annually, and Spain, which enjoys more than 80 million per year.

Proof of the economic gleam in Israel's tourism increase is the quality of the hotel room growth. Israel is witnessing nothing less than an explosion of high-end luxury hotels.

Although terms such as "luxury" have been bandied about by Israeli hoteliers for some time, the apex of true world-class luxury in Israel is arguably now occupied by Hilton International – one of Israel's most venerated hotel names. The Tel Aviv Hilton, dominating the north of the city in its own seaside compound, has long hosted glitterati and accomplished world travelers fed by Hilton's worldwide reservation system. For years, the Tel Aviv Hilton gave stiff competition to the Dan Hotel, which has always boasted a lobby graced by diplomats and statesmen.

Now the Tel Aviv Hilton has soared ahead by creating new peak luxury quarters within its existing hotel. The top floors of the hotel have been set aside as "the Vista at Tel Aviv Hilton," featuring concierge check-in, expansive unobstructed floor to ceiling room views of the coast and a club floor with overwhelming gourmet food service. The Vista is unmistakably the platinum address in Tel Aviv for seasoned travelers and expense account-endowed businessmen, who stream in from across the globe. While more costly than the regular Hilton, the unending gastronomical offerings of the club floor are worth it for food value alone. What's more, the Vista club floor is ringed by an unparalleled outdoor balcony where guests can sip espresso and munch on savories as eagle-level wind currents swirl about.

Outclassing even the Vista is arguably Israel's No. 1 luxury hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria, also managed by Hilton. The former Palace Hotel was built by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, to outclass the King David. The Palace opened in 1929 but closed in 1935. The British converted it to drab government offices; it even hosted the Peel Commission. The Haganah bugged the rooms to monitor progress.

In 2005, the disused structure was purchased, renovated for a reported sum of $150 million, and imbued with inspiring Moroccan, Arab and Romanesque architectonic motifs. These include a breathtaking atrium lobby dominated by a majestic clock tower emblazoned with Roman, Hebrew and European numerals. Every angle of every view of the interior reveals a different visual sweep. Hilton broke with tradition and hired outside the native Israeli hotel industry, bringing in its finest staffers from the great hotels of the world to augment its local force. Located just steps from the Mamilla Mall and ensconced in its own entry street, the Waldorf is centrally located. Style and joie de vivre almost hypnotically envelop guests with an urge to return and make the Waldorf their Jerusalem address.

New luxurious hotels have appeared from Eilat to Akko in the north. But none is perhaps more compelling than the Beresheet in the Negev town of Mitzpe Ramon, sprawling at the edge of Ramon Crater (Makhtesh Ramon). The Beresheet single-handedly made obsolete the notion that Negev tourism is ipso facto a tent or hostel experience. Booked far in advance at a premium price, it offers 111 private villas, 39 with private pools, sprinkled across 12.5 desert acres. Visitors are carted to their villas up steep stone runways, where feral Nubian ibexes saunter nearby in comfort.

The Beresheet's architectural triumph is emblematic of Israel's determination to meet its astonishing tourism growth, employing designers' most creative and environmental assets throughout the nation. By the end of this decade, thousands of additional luxury offerings will catapult the Jewish state to the pinnacle of world destinations. The torch of tourism ignites peace. The greater Israel's tourism triumph; the more irresistible is the concept of peace with its neighbors.

Read also Part I and Part III: The restaurant scene.

Edwin Black is a syndicated columnist who travels extensively, frequently reviewing the hotels he stays in. He personally and independently paid for all aspects of travel mentioned in this series.

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Israel's tourism triumph (Part II): Luxury hotels beckon appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Whereas similar boycotts against other countries have inflicted withering effects on national economies, in Israel, it simply hasn't worked. The opposite is true. Yes, boycotters are busy demonizing Israel. Yet despite this, Israel's tourism industry has rocketed to a singular triumph and now employs tens of thousands. Flights are packed, with new nonstop flights being added across the globe. Even though new luxury hotels are going up as fast as the Mideast sun will dry concrete, rooms remain in high demand and, therefore remain scarce and expensive. Israel has become world-famous for creative cuisine and trendy eateries, so if you want to get a table at one of the most popular restaurants, you'll need to book weeks in advance.

Travel and tourism to Israel have dramatically changed. It's not just synagogue sisterhoods and Jewish organizations. Swelling up from Israel's "startup nation" is top chef culture and the hard-won penetration of markets beyond America and Western Europe, coupled with its sophisticated travel industry, which combine to make Israel a destination for the entire world. Traditional Jewish-American travelers from Miami to Seattle must now compete with Silicon Valley techies, Chinese students, Indian tourists, Eastern European Christian pilgrims and diverse businessmen and women from across the planet. The numbers are multiplying.

In 2016, 2.9 million total worldwide visitors visited Israel. By the close of 2018, that number had boomed to 4.1 million – and the totals keep climbing. Within the coming decade, Israel expects to employ 98,000 people in its tourism sector.

When Israeli tourism prospers, so does the Palestinian community. Christian pilgrims make a beeline for Bethlehem. Thus, tourism breeds economic interdependence and strengthens co-existence.

Arrivals stream in from everywhere.

Today, most North American travelers to Israel are not Jewish; they are Christian, often seeking biblical discovery. From North America, Jews comprise about 40% to 45% of the travelers, while Christians generally hover at about 60% year to year, according to official estimates. While the Jewish-Christian percentages remain the same, the growth spurt for North America has seen the overall numbers increase by 42% since 2016.

In 2009, only 20,000 Indians visited Israel, reports Israel's tourism office in New Delhi. Some years ago, Israel hosted Indian travel agents knowing that in India, such agents book most of the travel. Reciprocal travel programs tapped such markets as India's Kerala Christians. Dramatically improved diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Jerusalem combined with thrice-weekly direct Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner service – which was granted special Saudi flyover permission, saving more than two hours – has created a steady flow of Indian visitors. This year, Israel expects more than 80,000 Indian arrivals, with travel officials working to achieve a further 65% increase. That may happen if, as planned, the Israeli film industry entices Bollywood producers to use Israeli locations.

In 2015, only 30,000 tourists visited Israel from China. But when direct flights between Ben-Gurion International Airport and numerous Chinese cities were added, the number more than trebled to 100,000-plus annually. Today, China is Israel's greatest growth market. Celebrity Chinese chefs are now flown in and Chinese-speaking guides are easily found.

Air connections are the lifeblood of Israel's tourism, as well as its international viability.

Nowadays you can fly nonstop to Israel from numerous North American cities. From New York's JFK, Delta is launching a twice-daily nonstop. From Newark's Liberty, United also flies nonstop twice a day. From Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport, United will soon inaugurate thrice weekly direct service. From Toronto, Air Canada offers daily nonstop flights. From Montreal, Air Canada will fly twice weekly during the summer. From San Francisco, United flies daily, primarily for the surging nexus to Silicon Valley.

North American carriers all compete with El Al, which is by far the dominant carrier linking our continent with Israel – boasting 45 nonstop flights weekly that carry more than 50,000 passengers per month. For many Israel-bound travelers, El Al is the one and only carrier. And it has vastly improved. With the exception of the Jewish Sabbath and holidays, Israel's star-emblazoned national carrier flies day or night, rain or shine, good news or bad news, rockets or not. Its unique extra security, where young security staffers at the airport ask intense personal questions to evaluate risk, are sometimes viewed as a mix between reassurance, ritual and a Jewish guilt trip. "You're coming to Israel? Why now?" Or the classic: "Who do you know in Israel?" Answer: "Everyone."

El Al has conquered labor problems, on-board religious tiffs and more to expand and enhance its daily service to and from multiple U.S. cities. Not only can you fly El Al nonstop direct from New York, Newark and Miami, but now also from Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, and this summer, from Las Vegas and San Francisco. In spring 2020, Chicago service will begin.

Israel's tourism triumph would not have been possible without an airline triumph as well. That triumph in the skies has finally happened.

Read also Part II: Luxury hotels beckon and Part III: The restaurant scene.

Edwin Black is a syndicated columnist who travels extensively, frequently reviewing the hotels he stays in. He personally and independently paid for all aspects of travel mentioned in this series.

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Israel's tourism triumph (Part 1) appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.